1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to receiving virtual content on a computational device. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a technique for filtering virtual content received on a computational device according to the user's context.
2. Related Art
The capabilities of mobile devices have increased dramatically in features and performance since their introduction. For example, many mobile devices now provide applications that were at one time solely the province of desktop computers, such as scheduling tools, word processors, email, web browsers, and other software applications. In addition, many mobile devices incorporate functions of electronic devices such as cameras, media players, global position sensors, wireless network connections, and phones.
Because mobile devices are equipped to send and receive information in a number of ways, providers of “virtual content” (i.e., electronically encoded tactile, audio and/or visual information) have already begun to explore the idea of attaching of virtual content to particular places or objects. In other words, the providers of virtual content associate virtual content with a particular place or object and a mobile device delivers the virtual content to a user when the user is in the location or near the object.
For example, Blockies.com provides a service that allows users to take a photo of a location or item with a cameraphone and then mark the location or item with a sticker with a unique ID number. The user then emails the picture and the unique ID number to Blockies.com. Next, Blockies.com links the photo to that location so that other users who walk by later can enter the ID number and see the photo on their phone.
Another example is Bookmark Handover, which is being developed jointly by Connect Technologies and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). This technology allows a user to bookmark information from media, such as TV and magazines, and save the information on a server through his or her mobile phone. The information is saved along with the context information such as location, time, environment, and situation. Then, during subsequent operation, the server compares context information associated with the bookmarked information to each user's current context information (such as that user's location). If the comparison generates a match, the server sends the bookmarked information to the user through mobile phone functions such as e-mail, short messages, video, or audio.
Yet another example is Lavasphere from Gavitec, which allows a camera phone to decode 1D (1-dimensional) or 2D (2-dimensional) barcodes that are linked to online information. When a barcode is read (i.e., photographed and then decoded) by a camera phone, the online information is delivered to the camera phone.
Yet another example is NTT DoCoMo's R-Click service, an area-information service incorporating mobile phones and a “wireless tag” device which enables a user to receive a wide variety of area information as they walk around an area that has been prepared with special “tags.”
Yet another example is Digital Graffiti from Siemens, which is an application that allows users to send messages from their mobile phone to a specific location. Other users passing through that location can receive the message.
Yet another example is ShotCode from OP3, which is a special kind of tag that contains a code that can be read by camera phones running free software (akin to the 1D and 2D tag reader from Lavasphere). The codes link the phone to a corresponding URL. Anyone can create their own ShotCode at the ShotCode website.
Yet another example is Yellow Arrow from Counts Media, which is an urban game and interactive forum for people to leave and discover messages and in doing so point out what counts. Users type the number code of an arrow sticker placed in some location into a text-message (SMS) from a mobile phone to the Yellow Arrow number. Other users can retrieve the message by using that arrow's number code.
The above examples illustrate that there exist many different techniques for attaching and receiving virtual content corresponding to physical objects and locations. Unfortunately, even given a well-developed infrastructure for attaching virtual content to physical objects and locations, system designers still face major challenges in providing an acceptable user experience. One of the main challenges is that once it becomes feasible to easily populate a given location with virtual content, that location is likely to become far more cluttered with information demanding the user's attention. As the amount of available information increases, the user can find it more difficult to find the useful information among the clutter.
Hence, what is needed is a method and apparatus for delivering virtual content which does not suffer from the above-mentioned problems.